TechCrunch Startup News

byTechCrunch

NewsTechnology

Listen to select TechCrunch articles on startups coverage—who's raising, who's exiting, who's changing the world.

Episodes(40 episodes)

Gradient’s heat pumps get new smarts to enable old-building retrofits

Gradient's heat pumps fit in windows, minimizing installation times. Now, it is introducing software to make those units more intelligent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Feb 4, 2026Duration: 4:29

Linq raises $20M to enable AI assistants to live within messaging apps

Linq offers an API that lets companies offer their AI assistants via iMessage, RCS and SMS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Feb 3, 2026Duration: 6:58

Carbon Robotics built an AI model that detects and identifies plants

Carbon Robotics' Large Plant Model will allow farmers to kill new types of weeds without having to retrain the machines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Feb 3, 2026Duration: 4:09

Two Stanford students launch $2M startup accelator for students nationwide

Two Stanford students launch $2M startup accelator for students nationwide Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Feb 2, 2026Duration: 4:40

HomeBoost’s app will show you where to save on your utility bills; plus, Waymo reportedly raising a $16B funding round

The startup is partnering with utilities to help homeowners determine the best upgrades to cut their energy use. Also, Waymo is reportedly finalizing a new funding round that will value the robotaxi company at $110 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Feb 2, 2026Duration: 6:39

Upwind raises $250M at $1.5B valuation to continue building ‘runtime’ cloud security; plus, AI security startup Outtake raises $40M

The $250 million Series B was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and Picture Capital. Also, Outtake makes an agentic cybersecurity platform to help enterprises detect identity fraud. Its angel investors are a who's who. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 30, 2026Duration: 7:43

Flapping Airplanes and the promise of research-driven AI; plus, Upwind raises $250M at $1.5B valuation to continue building ‘runtime’ cloud security

A new AI lab called Flapping Airplanes launched yesterday, and a Sequoia partner has an interesting take on why they stand out. Also, Upwind's $250 million Series B was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and Picture Capital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 29, 2026Duration: 7:47

Tiny startup Arcee AI built a 400B-parameter open source LLM from scratch to best Meta’s Llama

30-person startup Arcee AI has released a 400B model called Trinity, which it says is one of the biggest open source foundation models from a U.S. company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 29, 2026Duration: 7:54

Jennifer Garner’s Once Upon a Farm resumes IPO plans; plus, Fashion rental app By Rotation partners with Uber

Once Upon A Farm food company may debut as soon as next week. It has issued a price range for shares, an SEC filing shows. Also, By Rotation, one of the UK’s most popular peer-to-peer fashion rental platforms, is partnering with Uber to deliver ski clothes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 28, 2026Duration: 6:07

Phia raises $35M to ‘make shopping fun again’; plus, Risotto raises $10M seed to use AI to make ticketing systems easier to use

Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni’s Phia raises $35M to ‘make shopping fun again’ Also, designed to autonomously resolve help desk tickets, Risotto has raised $10 million in seed funding in a round led by Bonfire Ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 28, 2026Duration: 9:07

Northwood Space secures a $100M Series B and a $50M Space Force contract; plus, AI chip startup Ricursive hits $4B valuation

This is the El Segundo, California-based startup's second raise in less than a year. Also, Ricursive joins Recursive and Unconventional AI in raising massive funds at multi-billion valuations out of the gate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 27, 2026Duration: 7:51

AI startup CVector raises $5M for its industrial ‘nervous system’

Industrial AI startup CVector built a brain and nervous system for big industry. Now, founders Richard Zhang and Tyler Ruggles are tasked with a bigger challenge: showing customers and investors how this AI-powered software layer translates to real savings on an industrial scale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 27, 2026Duration: 5:45

How PopWheels helped a food cart ditch generators for e-bike batteries

PopWheels realized its battery swapping network could be used for more than food delivery workers who need to charge their e-bikes. Now, its planning for an "aggressive rollout" this summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 26, 2026Duration: 6:08

This startup will send 1,000 people’s ashes to space — affordably — in 2027

Started by an engineer who worked on the space shuttle program, and at Blue Origin, Space Beyond has a spot on a 2027 Falcon 9 flight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 26, 2026Duration: 6:36

OpenAI is coming for those sweet enterprise dollars; plus, Anduril expanding to Long Beach

OpenAI has reportedly appointed Barret Zoph to lead its push into enterprise just a week after Zoph rejoined the company. Also, Anduril announced its plans to expand its Southern California presence with a major campus in Long Beach, the town where founder Palmer Luckey grew up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 23, 2026Duration: 6:59

Struggling fusion power company General Fusion to go public via $1B reverse merger

General Fusion's merger with an acquisition company will net the company over $300 million. Just last year, the company ran into trouble raising money from other investors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 23, 2026Duration: 5:26

From invisibility cloaks to AI chips: Neurophos raises $110M to build tiny optical processors for inferencing

Neurophos is taking a crack at solving the AI industry's power efficiency problem with an optical chip that uses a composite material to do the math required in AI inferencing tasks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Published: Jan 22, 2026Duration: 7:37